Hello Everyone,
do you remember the informations passed on by Kent in
this link:
http://allafrica.com/stories/199908250064.html
As European based Jehovah's Witnesses donate items worth K30m
The Times of Zambia (Ndola
August 25, 1999
Posted to the web August 25, 1999
Correspondent
Lusaka
A Consignment of humanitarian aid worth K30 million for refugees in Mporokoso's Mwange camp is expected to arrive in the country this week from Belgium.
According to a spokesman of the national headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses in Lusaka, Clement Samabona, the relief supplies includes hospital equipment, medicines, clothes and books. The humanitarian aid was scheduled to arrive in Zambia yesterday by Aid Afrique, a European-based non-governmental relief organisation that uses the logistics of congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses.
The relief is made up of donations from congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Europe. Mr. Samabona said that 30,000 French books in the consignment are to help the refugees in Mwange camp have a library.
The books include encyclopedias, dictionaries and many others. Some of the books will be
donated to Maheba camp in North Western Province.
The medical equipment and medicines are to be used by the hospital in Mporokoso to help, not only refugees but the general population in the area. The consignment weighing 14 tons, would be handed over to the Ministry of Health and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for distribution in Mwange camp.
In June this year, two representatives of Aid Afrique flew in from Belgium and France, to hold consultations with local authorities in
order to establish what ways the organisation can supplement relief efforts being carried out on
behalf of the refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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the story:
ambian 'Watchtowers' in relief work to Congo
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The Times of Zambia (Lusaka)
January 14, 1998
Posted to the web January 14, 1998
Lawrence Mpundu
Lusaka
"It is gratifying that the Zambia Association of Jehovah's Witnesses (ZAJW) has sent volunteers and relief workers to the former Zaire just to alleviate the burden of refugees in the Great Lakes region."
Television cameras keep bringing into our living rooms pictures of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the former Zaire. The looks of despair on the faces of the refugees have haunted many people across the globe. In the pages of our newspapers, we have read of the desperate pleas for help. Uvira, Bukavu, Kisangani, Kivu and Goma are the 'bloody' names in the former Zaire now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Many refugees in the DRC have had this sense of foreboding and feeling of utter helplessness amid the unceasing bloodletting in the Great Lakes region. Despite the fact that various organisations such as the World Health Organisations (WHO), CARE International and the International Red Cross Society (IRCS) have supplemented the efforts of providing relief to these groups, the refugees still believe the efforts haven't paid any dividends. However, others believe differently. And their efforts are continuing to reap many benefits.
More relief efforts were done by various NGOs in the previous year and are still being done in Congo-Kinshasa towards helping thousands of refugees who were affected by the seven months war in the country. Among the NGOs doing the notable work in Congo is the Zambia Association of Jehovah's Witness (ZAJW) which was formed early last year. The association, through its 160 volunteers drawn from the Jehovah's Witnesses congregations in the country, is involved in relief food, medical and humanitarian aid to the refugees in the former Zaire. Volunteers from ZAJW, which is sponsored by contributions from churches and co-ordinated by Belgium, France and Switzerland, have supplied the refugees with a total of 500kg of medicine, 10 tonnes of vitamin products, 20 tonnes of food, more than 90 tonnes of clothing, 18,500 pairs of shoes and 1,00 blankets totaling nearly $1m in the previous year. Other relief supplies to Congo include manpower where three observers, two medical doctors and a nurse were dispatched.
ZAJW spokesman, Clement Samabona, says in a statement that his association, over the past nine months, has mobilised medical relief workers from among Jehovah's Witnesses with the help of France to go into parts of eastern Congo. There, they have rendered help to many war victims from different parts of the country. Jehovah's Witnesses have also helped in the training of the eastern Congolese people in the field of nursing. Others have been taught how to use scrap metal to make wheelchairs for the injured while a group of widows in Bunia-Butembo who were left destitute following the deaths of their husbands during the war and by the destruction of their fields, were supplied with clothing and helped with finances to start a second-hand clothing business. "Because of the political neutrality of Jehovah's Witnesses well-known world-wide, relief war workers were allowed to gain access to many areas. Relief supplies, as well as medical treatment for cholera, dysentery and malaria, were shared with Witnesses and non-Witnesses alike," Mr. Samabona says.
The volunteers have also taught the local people in various fields such as carpentry, poultry farming, and tailoring so that they can be self-sufficient. "About 95 per cent of the inhabitants in Goma and Kisangani are unemployed. Only a few humanitarian organisations employ some Congolese as drivers or porters. So, there is need to train these people to be self-reliance so as to support their families," says Mr Samabona. Despite all these efforts by the association however, the volunteers are hindered by difficulties in their operations in Congo. These include distances which are vast and lines of communication which are almost non existent. The best form of travel, if not the only one, is the airplane which has proved to be expensive. Administrative formalities have also contributed to the failure by the association to achieve its goal in these areas as getting a pass from the authority to go from one town to the next is quite difficulty and taking long. Dispatching of the cargo suffered delays with the agency of the situation made it painful in the previous year though things are beginning to change.
What plans does the association have at present in trying to help those Tutsi refugees trapped in the thick forest of Congo since the war has ended? Mr Samabona explains: "The association will continue to help the less privileged people in the country by providing the population with the necessities that they need urgently such as the food that they normally eat. "The Butembo region produces rice and beans but this is not enough to feed the people in the area instead, the association has found it necessary to get money to buy foods from the neighbouring countries and within the country and deliver them to the refugees than to transport food from Europe and this is what we will continue doing this year". The association also has plans to send more medical volunteers to these war ravaged areas of Congo to teach the local people some basics in health such as how to control cholera and other epidemic diseases. There is also need to find adequate and reliable trucks to transport medicines and food to these areas whose roads are impassable.
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Copyright © 2001 The Times of Zambia. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com)
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°.
But was you aware of the WTS : » MISSION TO AFRICA « a 15 pages brochure
edited in France (june 1997) and ...in ENGLISH ???
Here some od the scanned pages :
(page 4)
In the summer of 1994, Claude Hamel, a company owner from
France in his fifties, and president of Aidafrique, a French humanitari-
an association, led a team of volunteers to set up well-organized camps
and field hospitals for the Rwandan refugees in Zaire.*
1
By the end of their trip, more than 7,000 persons-three times \
the number of Jehovah's Witnesses in Rwanda-benefited from the help
of the relief. However, Zaire itself soon became a land of peril. So,
-4 from April 28 to May 12, 1997, Claude brought a relief team together
.once again. He and his wife, Joseline, Louis de Wit of Belgium, Pierre
Baudry of France, and Dr. Anton Camprubi of Switzerland left their
countries to help alleviate the suffering of the Zairian people.
The team, all of whom are Jehovah's Witnesses, wanted to sup-
ply humanitarian aid. With the help of thousands of Jehovah's Witness-
..es in Belgium, France, and Switzerland they supplied the refugees with
a total of 500 kg of medicine, 10 tons of vitamin products, 20 tons of
food, more than 90 tons of clothing, 18,500 pairs of shoes, and
* The country's name has been changed to Democratic Republic of Congo. Since the team of
volunteers entered the country prior to the change, references to the country will reflect the former
name.
(page 5)
1,000 blankets. The cost of the supplies totaled 4.5 million French
francs or nearly $1 million (U.S.). We invite you to join the relief
team by reading the following personal accounts of their work.
We arrived in Goma, which was the center of our activities in
1994. Claude and ]oseline, " African veterans," and the backbone of the
humanitarian action, explored the city and the surrounding areas of
Rutshuru, Masisi, Uvira, Kalemie, Moba, Kabalo. In addition, Claude
sent out messengers to obtain reports from Buterobo and Bunia. We 5
also received information from Kisangani, situated about 1,000 kro
[620 miles] from Goma. In Goma, we were taken aback by an impres-
sion of calm. Rubble, deformed and broken roads, testified however to
the recent war.
In Goma, 95% of the inhabitants are unemployed. The few hu-
manitarian organizations employ some Zairians as drivers or porters. In
the hotels, some work without being paid in the hope of keeping their
job when the money comes back. The people lack everything: clothing,
shoes, medicine and especially food. Hunger follows the war, with ru-
ined crops, food reserves looted, and the very high prices for the food
still available.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°end of partial scanning -
Now, has anybody in the USA seen this brochure ???
Kent, do you want a copy to be sent to you ???
Greetings , J.C.MacHislopp
" One who has an accurate knowledge
of God's Word will have no problem
in refuting false religious ideas".